This invention relates generally to seat and chair lifts, and particularly to portable seat and chair lifts adapted for use in partially submerging people in and emerging them from water confined within bathtubs and the like.
Seat and chair lifts have heretofore been developed for use in lowering and raising the infirmed and aged into and out of bathtubs. Most such seat and chair lifts are permanently mounted within or form an integral part of therapeutic type bathtubs such as those found in hospitals and nursing homes. Portable seat lifts however, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,679,890, have also been devised for use in home bathtubs without need for permanently attaching or affixing the lifts to the tubs or making alterations to the tub bodies to accomodate them.
Portable type seat lifts of the prior art have not found wide acceptance due to several persistant problems foremost of which being that of stability. These types of seat lifts have tended to wobble in operation both during raising and lowering operations as well as during pivotable movement in repositioning the seats over the edge of the tubs for mounting and dismounting. In their lowermost position the seats have been located a significant distance above the bottom of the tubs whereby the body of the person seated thereupon is not submerged as far as possible within the tub water. Moreover, in many cases the portable seat lifts have been operable by manipulation of controls readily accessible only to a bather attendant. In addition, the power means for operating the lifts has also been bulky and expensive, such typically being in the form of electric powered hydraulic pump systems having system components seated both within and without the bounds of the tub.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved portable seat lift for use in bathtubs.
More specifically, it is the object of the present invention to provide a portable seat lift for use in bathtubs which lift exhibits substantial stability during operation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a portable seat lift for bathtubs which may be operated by a person seated upon the lift.
Another object of the invention is to provide a portable seat lift which does not require ancillary motor means not normally available within a bathroom.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a portable seat lift of simple and economic construction and one which enables the user to be submerged to a point closely adjacent the bottom of bathtubs.